IrishOboe

I get all discombobulated when I spend a night away from home, so I hope I’m starting where I left off. The Lake Motosuko region was so wonderfully beautiful and it was great to be back in nature sweating, swimming, sunning and relaxing. I miss the Maggie P.

Saturday morning I did domestic work and I believe it was today that Heather called (maybe it was earlier). In any case, I was privileged to speak to a very talkative Jonathan, who told me about the sand he was playing with (sand, sand, dump, sand) and their sailing trip (Daddy, sailboat, Daddy), and how much he missed Grandma and Dad-o. Then he started saying “Aunt Janet, pan, pan!” Heather translated for me: Aunt Janet is in Japan! Say Japan out loud and you’ll understand why he calls it pan. I was very excited and asked him if he wanted to visit me in Japan and he said very enthusiastically “YES!” Well, there you have it!

Sometime after noon I met Kasia in Kofu and she drove me to the campsite. On the way we stopped at a momo (peach) stand on the side of the road. They gave us two peaches for free just for us to try, and of course it was so wonderfully delicious we bought a case (about 7) for about $20. Believe it or not, that’s cheap for around here. Then he gave us two free peaches for buying a case. We managed to have a bit of a conversation with him in Japanese with both Kasia and I contributing. It was fun! We were about to leave when he ran after us calling “choto mate” (just a minute) and retrieved a bag of eggplants from his house which he then gave to us! The Japanese are truly amazing.

Once we found the campsite we dumped our stuff and went swimming! It was actually a little warmer than the Atlantic ocean water I’m used to swimming in, which surprised me very much! The people from the West coast were calling it bath water, but I’ve never swam in the pacific so it didn’t seem quite so warm to me. I swam out quite a ways and it was beautiful. The water was blue-green but it was too thick to see more than 10 feet or so. It felt like I was suspended over a great nothingness. After about an hour I grew cold and joined the dry people on the beach. Well, if you can call small black stones a beach. Not too long afterwards the cops showed up. I’ve never had that happen in the states, and here I am, three weeks in Japan and I’ve already seen the cops twice when supposedly the Japanese cops are hardly anywhere! Our crime? Swimming. There was no sign saying not to swim, and people swim in the lake all the time, but from what I gathered, the sun had gone behind the mountains so it was now too dangerous to swim because it was too cold! Too cold?! That water was anything but too cold. I think they were just making that up as an excuse, though why they didn’t want us swimming is beyond me.

In the evening I bummed food off other people by having such necessities as paper plate and paper towels when they needed them. I figured there would be a lot of food and a lack of random useful accessories. One of the Fujiyoshida chefs also had made too much for the Fujiyoshida crowd so I had a pretty tasty meal. *grin* After dinner the party really got going. They had a DJ with very loud music (yes Mom, I wore my earplugs even though it was terribly hot to have my hair down covering them so as not to appear rude), drinking and dancing. I’ve only really danced a few times in my life, and I’m sure it’s much easier with alcohol in the system, but I decided this was a case of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” I wasn’t going to get much peace and quite (I tried retreating to the lake and the music was nearly as loud there), so I decided to have fun the way so many people like to: I danced. I only recognized one song, the rest sounded like one long rap song to me, but I found a groove and went wild (minus the disgusting grinding and such, though there wasn’t too much of that going on). At one point in a slower song I pranced around like a ballerina (people even asked if I was a real dancer). I went nuts jumping up and down on the hard core stuff, and I generally just faked my way around. It was actually more fun that I’d expected, though it all paled compared to the best dancing of the night, which was a cha-cha with Mike during a piece with a Latin beat. It’s just so much cooler to be interacting with someone, not just dancing next to him. I hope I haven’t shocked anyone by my outrageous behavior. Who knew I had it in me? I think it all comes from the part of me that likes to try anything with both feet first (though please note I still didn’t have any alcohol – I do like to choose wisely what I try).

We (Kasia, Megan and I) went to our bungalow around 2pm, though the party was still going strong. The noise made it a tad difficult to get to sleep, but I think I got about 5 hours, maybe.

Sunday morning Kasia, Megan (Christian girl who lives near Fujiyoshida and used to live in Ecuador), Mike and I went for a run to a hiking trail. It turned out to be farther than I though so we only ended up hiking a little, but it was still nice to be in the woods for a change. The whole area was so wonderfully peaceful and beautiful (and much cooler). It made me a bit sad that I’m so much in the city, but it was also a really nice break. I’ll just have to make a point of visiting my friends who live in beautiful areas so I can recharge my battries.

After the run I went snorkeling with Mike, who’s friends had brought extra gear. I hadn’t been snorkeling in a long time so it was extra neat to just float suspended above the great unknown without having to come up for air. Mike found a small anchor and was trying to bring it up so I showed him how to drag it to shore instead (go Maggie P. experience!). Chris (Mike’s friend whose gear I borrowed) said the diving shop would be very happy to is it. Anyway, wow, that was random. I just had time after that to pack up my stuff and Kasia and I headed out. It was quite a lovely time and I’m glad I went.

I had a little time at home (in which I did all my camping laundry) before going out with Mie and Akiko, two Japanese girls who studied at the University of Central Florida. They knew where Altamonte Springs was and we had a great time talking about Florida, etc. Mie got in touch with me through my predecessor, and Akiko was visiting Mie from Tokyo. We had dessert at a nearby pub-type place and they could tell that I was very tired. Not only had I not gotten much sleep, but I’d been swimming and running around all weekend so I was physically tired, too. I felt bad that I wasn’t as much fun, but it was a nice time anyway. The day is not over yet, however, since long ago I agreed to go to the Isawa fireworks festival with Niko, so here I go! Janet the loner seems to have turned into Janet the social butterfly!!!

P.S. I forgot to mention that the campout was a welcome party for all JETs in Yamanashi, so I can picture the usual crowd of about 40 people.